Thursday Show and Tell; Oil lamp

Today I show you pictures of an old oil lamp, made by my great-uncle, one of my grandmothers brothers, at my fathers side. (Well, actually she was my fathers stephmother, his own mother died in 1937 when he was 4 years old.) My great-uncle was a coppersmith in his free time...

I have polished it before taking pictures. You can see it's a little bit damaged, there  used to be an extra layer beyond the spout of the lamb, I suppose to catch oildrops or so.

If you look very well at the photo above you can see that the copper has been forced by beating it, all tiny dents. (in Nederland is de term dan ook koperslager, toepasselijker dan het engelse coppersmith) So it was a very time consuming job, and it had to be done very accurate. Copper is a rather soft material, so it can be bowed.

When I look at it I still remember it hanging above a chest of drawers in my grandmothers appartment, and before that in the beautiful house were she lived with her family, where my father lived since the family returned from Indonesie. My grandmother was a very talented and strong woman, a teacher. Those memories are dear to me. So when my grandmother died, this year 20 years ago, I inherited this oil lamp.